Mainstream salsa seems to have become centred around learning more and more complex moves as it is the easiest way to get people excited, most certainly in the beginning stages. If after 4 weeks of class you have seen 20 moves you might feel like you have made huge progress even if you only remember 7 of them when you go social dancing, however, if you cannot lead or follow these moves properly and you cannot dance to the right rhythm let alone interpret the music then what you have effectively learned is executing a number of complex arm and leg movements while there is some music playing in the background but there is a lot more to dancing than just remembering the structure of moves.
I am the first to admit that there are a lot of things I still have to learn and I am not saying that everyone who goes to a salsa events has to know everything about the dance. However, I do think it is a shame that the majority of salsa schools I have been to do not explain the history, musicality, culture, etiquette etc. more often as I view it a fundamental part of Cuban salsa to have at least some background knowledge on these other aspects of the dance. Of course, it is not easy to find the right balance between all of these aspects and to give people enough of an exercise in class while playing enough songs for them to feel like they had an actual dance class rather than a lecture. While I have certainly tried my best to balance all these aspects in every class I teach there are always days when I feel like I talked too much or explained too little, where I have become too technical and people lose interest or where I have thrown too many moves at them and they struggle remembering them for the next class. However, while it might be difficult it is not impossible and I have found that a lot of students become interested in these other aspects of dancing over time as well. At the end of the day even if it means losing a few students who just want to do new moves the entire class I do think that teachers have a responsibility to give out at least a little bit of background information so that students do not appear completely ignorant when social dancing.
